The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents

This was Wells before he wrote The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine, rawer, darker, with a sardonic bite that would later soften into wonder. The fifteen stories in this collection trace the anxious edge of late-Victorian England, where new scientific knowledge promised both miracle and catastrophe. The opening tale, "The Stolen Bacillus," is a compact nightmare: an anarchist steals a vial of cholera bacteria from a bacteriologist and vanishes into London with plans to contaminate the water supply. The chase through city streets crackles with period texture and genuine dread. Other stories venture stranger territory, an invisible man with a grudge, a creature that stalks astronomers at a remote observatory, a man who discovers his own doppelganger. Wells layers satire, horror, and genuine speculative speculation, asking again and again: what do we owe to the powers we unlock? The collection reads like a dispatch from a world nervously watching the 20th century arrive. For readers who want their science fiction with a Victorian edge, dark, witty, and unafraid of uncomfortable questions.